Apple and Mirror Worlds: Seeing Double?
October 10, 2010
Short honk: The Mirror Worlds’ interface used a stack of cards metaphor. I have a screenshot floating around or had a screenshot floating around. I saw the interface in the mid 1990s. I thought it was cool because a query returned results in my favorite format—note cards in a stack. My recollection is that the most recent or more relevant items were at the top of the stack and the others receded to a vanishing point.
I read “Apple Hit With $625 Million Judgment in Patent Suit Over Cover Flow, Spotlight, Time Machine.” Apparently the US legal system saw some similarities between Apple’s technologies and interface elements and Mirror Worlds’ approach. I am no attorney, but the dust up reminds me that “new” is a matter of perspective and knowledge. When I attend a meeting with oh-so-confident 30 somethings, I am reminded that reinventing the wheel is a way of life. Sometimes the reinvention runs off the rim. More legal arabesques ahead. Now about that UX of thinking about paying those millions.
Stephen E Arnold, October 10, 2010
Freebie unlike patent litigation among oh-so-confident attorneys
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